Rating: 
Summary: The Deification of Billy Beane
Review: Having read all of the Bill James Baseball Abstracts since they were first widely published, as well as articles and books from others in the field of sabermatics; and having been a Met fan since their beginning in 1962 and remembering the playing career of Billy Beane, I looked forward to reading this book. What a disappointment.After the first third of the book, which laid out the foundation of the Oakland A's methods of evaluating players, referencing the seminal works of Bill James and others regarding on-base perentages, pitches seen per plate appearance, et al, the remaining two-thirds turned into what I consider a PR puff piece on the greatness of Billy Beane, the man who saved or at least reinvented baseball. Not only did I find the book rather ponderous from the midpoint on, but I also thought the descriptions of Beane's habits to be depressing and very sad. Without a doubt he has retooled scouting and player development using the methods of sabermatics, yet he doesn't want to watch, actually almost cannot watch, the games themselves. When he does watch, he cannot enjoy what he is watching. Somehow, author Lewis does not see it this way, or chooses to make light of it as simply a quirk. With too little discussion of the technical nuances of his methods for my taste, the book is really a character study of a very complex and flawed individual, a man whose whole life revolves around baseball, but not the game as it unfolds on the field but instead the game of buying and selling commodities. It is almost as if he is only in the game to prove to others how smart he is, to gain revenge for the injustice of his playing career, and to do this by controlling and in some cases demeaning others (scouts, Art Howe, et al.) His front office staff come off far better, as men who love the analytical techniques they are bringing to the game, but also as men who love to watch the game unfold. In the long haul, it is they who seem to have the brightest and happiest futures, not Beane. In summary, I was very disappointed in the book -- the exerpt in Sports Illustrated and an earlier article in the New York Times Magazine told me as much as I believe was necesary to understand the methods, and the study of the man was too much a glorification of Bily Beane and too little an objective look at a very complicated man.
Rating: 
Summary: Hooray!
Review: This book demonstrates that baseball is a game of strategy, off the field as well as on. It is a game where the little guy can still win out - if he has the smarts and can gain the competitive edge. The book restores one's faith in the basic integrity of the game, and it must strike fear into the hearts of the George Steinbrenners of the world. As Michael Lewis so satisfyingly illustrates, baseball really is America's game, the game where the underdog can come out on top. This book, and Bill Lee's revisionist baseball history, The Little Red (Sox) Book have restored my faith in the sanctity of baseball.
Rating:
Summary: Baseball Fan with a Passion for the game
Review: Required reading for anyone who appreciates the game of baseball. Michael Lewis gives all the facts on why the Oakland A's are so successful in baseball with ~$50M budget against teams spending 2-3 times as much. This book is not a glorification of the A's GM, Billy Beane but a complete dissection of the ways baseball teams must operate to compete successfully. If I was a baseball owner, I would require my General Manager to read the book and explain why our payroll is so high with poor results (NY Mets, Baltimore Orioles). Overall great book.
JTS
Rating: 
Summary: Good Reading, Not really the facts.
Review: Michael Lewis is a great author, and really goes inside a war room in baseball. I love books about sports, and i sometimes aspire to be a baseball GM, and such. Yet i don't believe the Lews portrays many characters correctly. For example Grady Fuson (the A's old Scouting Director) drafted the likes of great pros like: Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Eric Chavez. Lewis gives him absolutely no credit. Also Assistant GM Paul DePodesta has said that Lewis can over dramatize some of the things they talked about, (like the importance of stats). Lewis also doesnt state that the A's drafted some guys too high, because they couldn't afford the best guys on the market. With all that said Moneyball is a very good read, and takes you right to the GM's office Of a great franchise
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book...
Review: It's amazing that with all the complaints by Selig & Co. of how poorer baseball teams cannot comepete, Beane and the A's have built an organization primed for long term success. As a baseball fan, this book is a great read. It crystalizes what specific factors weigh in to Oakland's player evaluation metrics, and how they leverage inefficiencies in the market to their advantage. One of the greatest tragedies in baseball is the failure rate of young players. For so long, we've assumed that it's because hitting a round ball with a round bat "square" is so difficult. However, as Beane and the A's have proved, teams are looking for the wrong skills! Beane has assembled a roster of players that other teams have passed on and cast off, and with it, taken the mighty Yankees to the brink twice in the past 3 years. What's most remarkable is that this isn't an "abberation," but a system of player development that should keep the A's in competition until the rest of the league catches up. Lewis doesn't get into the actual "meat" of the statistical methods used, but this is a great start for any fan of the game. Especially if your team has been in a state of never-ending "rebuilding."
Rating:
Summary: A new way to look at baseball
Review: it's always interesting to see someone deconstruct anything and put it back together in a way that makes you see things totally differently than conventional wisdom. The story fo the 2002 A's does that. The one unanswerable question I had that Lewis never answered was-what happens when EVERYONE in baseball adopts something closer to Beane's sicientific approach? Will his present advantage disappear or will he adjust his approach again?
That's a relatively minor quibble. This is a great read. I would only note while the Mets are now a mess, Kazmir, the high school pitcher that Beane passed on, is having a great season. We'll see.
Rating:
Summary: Money and Baseball
Review: It's refreshing, and re-assuring, to know that money can't buy everything, even in baseball. This book offers hope for all small market teams and their fans. Bill "spaceman" Lee, in his new book, The Little Red (Sox) Book says much the same thing in a humorous, revisionist manner.
Rating:
Summary: Realize that it's NOT a novel!
Review: Great, great book -- but beware of the wrong impression that you might get from the dust-cover write-up! I actually bought the book based on a misunderstanding; from the dust-cover, I swore this was a novel, a writer's fantasy about "what if" a baseball team were put together in a non-traditional way, by people who throw away the tired old assumptions and proceed on the basis of truth. But it turns out that this is no fantasy; it has actually occurred -- it's the Oakland A's of recent years -- and THAT'S what the book is about! And, it's so good that I didn't at all resent the misunderstanding that the book's blurb gave me (I'm sure it wasn't intended). If you are already a keen student of the "new analysis" of baseball (a la Bill James, John Thorn, Pete Palmer etc.), you'll enjoy this confirmation of what you pride yourself on knowing; if not, you'll have the wonderful adventure of getting a steep learning curve on the science of baseball and how for years and years the "old boys network" has failed to see the forest for the trees. Also, you'll laugh an awful lot, and your lexicon will gain some new catch phrases; my personal favorite is, "Put a Milo on him."
Rating:
Summary: Great reading for the thinking baseball fan
Review: Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" is a wonderful book that attempts to answer a strange paradox according to conventional baseball wisdom: How do the Oakland Athletics, one of the poorest teams in baseball, win so much and win so relentlessly? The answer is, of course, the system that General Manager Billy Beane built that challenged irrational baseball orthodoxy and made the most with the least in an inefficient system. Beane himself was once touted by scouts who thought he had all the right attributes: speed, power, athleticism, and, yes, "the Good Face." When his major league career ended bitterly as an unambiguous failure, he turned his other talents to bringing rationality to an irrational baseball establishment. His new tools: statistical analysis, a willingness to discard conventional wisdom, an ability to think, and a demeanor designed to bait unsuspecting GMs into making foolish deals. One of the best scenes from the book is Billy Beane in action during the 2002 trading deadline when he cobbled together a few good and undervalued players to add to the Oakland juggernaut. The funniest line in this section comes from Beane's dealings with the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a team he fleeced before: "[W]hile Tampa Bay's management was willing to talk to Billy, they were too frightened to deal with him." A god among mere mortals indeed. To me, the most engrossing part of "Moneyball" is the Oakland A's 2002 amateur draft which would lay the foundation of the team in the coming years. While other teams were quite content to gamble and to dream the very possible dream of mediocrity in selecting raw and untested high school players, the A's used their seven first round picks to draft a bunch of college no names the baseball establishment scorned. Why? They were either too short, too fat, too skinny, too slow, or even too ugly to become, in the minds of baseball scouts who supposedly knew better, future stars. Beane rightly dismissed this subjective and irrational hogwash by highlighting attributes the scouts should have paid attention to instead: on base percentage, slugging percentage, walks, strike out-to-walk ratios, and other quantifiable measures that correlate highly to future success. A word on the recent controversy between White Sox GM Kenny Williams and Beane when the former accused the latter of talking too much to Lewis and making Williams look stupid in their lop-sided trades. In "Moneyball" there is not one section where Beane says anything directly disparaging about his fellow GMs, but the Oakland GM's record nonetheless speaks for itself: GMs like Williams are letting irrational and institutionalized baseball prejudices blind them and Beane took advantage accordingly. In the end, baseball commissioner Bud Selig could continue to continue to chant his mantra that "small market teams can't compete" over and over until he secures taxpayers' dollars to build every stadium. Teams could continue to ignore the mounting evidence that college players are a good bet and instead blow their money and time chasing down high-risk high schoolers or over-valued mediocrity. In the meantime, the Oakland example will show (and continue to show) that how wrong--and yes, how needlessly stupid--they are. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Insights
Review: I can't recommend this book highly enough. Not only is it the first look inside the most successful franchise - sure, there's the Yankees, but when historians look back, it will be Beane's A's that are remembered as the innovators. Even non-baseball fans will enjoy the crisp writing and phenomenal story-telling. Lewis' previous books are a high standard, but Moneyball may be even better. I'm still amazed that Beane allowed so much access - either Lewis is every bit as persuasive as Beane or Beane has something up his sleeve! The true star of the book may end up being Paul DePodesta, who will likely be the next great GM, following JP Ricciardi and Theo Epstein as "Beane Counters" and likely the men that saved baseball. I can't speak for the rest of Baseball Prospectus, but this has to be the best baseball book not written by us in the last decade.
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